‘Walmart of weed’ weGrow opens Friday in D.C.

WeGrow, a company billing itself as the “Walmart of Weed,” will sell materials needed to cultivate and care for the plants, but not the plants themselves.

“The more that businesses start to push the envelope by showing that this is a legitimate industry, the further we’re going to be able to go in changing people’s minds,” weGrow founder Dhar Mann told the Associated Press.

The District and 16 states have legalized the use of medical marijuana to treat a variety of ailments, from back pain to anxiety; however, the D.C. Council approved emergency legislation in January to place a limit on how much medical marijuana could be grown. At that time, there were 28 applications “to create and manage” medical marijuana cultivation centers, according to the Post’s Tim Craig.

A recent article published in Washingtonian suggests marijuana usage — for medical reasons or otherwise — is a longtime popular pastime for area residents.

“For people who have really high-producing, high-stress jobs, it’s like this is my break in order to release a lot of the stress,” a 37-year-old who used to work in politics told the publication’s Alexandra Robbins. “It’s fine for it to be a closed secret as long as you’re still showing up and getting massive amounts of work done.”

Nearly 17.4 million Americans said they used marijuana in 2010, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.